Sage ONE 4116

Just thought I'd post a little review of this rod after having it for the last couple of months. This afternoon I loaded on a 275gr rio compact skagit, a 10ft polyleader, and a summer steelhead fly. I haven't spey cast the rod and have instead been using it as an indicator rod.

Well, this rod is a lightweight rocket launcher with the 275. It's not a forgiving rod. You have to have your timing pretty spot on. But, when you feel the crisp flex in the butt of the rod and see the line shoot across the river and feel that wonderful THUNRRK of the coils of line being completely extended, it'll make your jaw drop as you realize you're holding a featherweight four weight. It's unreal. Today I was making casts that were much further and more precise than on my 7126 TCX. I guess I have some work to do in dialin in the TCX.....

For nymphing applications I'd recommend the 5wt speydicator over the rio switch line of the same weight. I like the thicker diameter line of the speydicator and feel like it's the perfect rope for mending and sending a nymph rig and bobber into drifts you'd never be able to hit with a single hander. Again, it's shocking how far and precise you can launch a thingamabobber with this powerful little rod.

I took it to the salt last week and tried out the rio outbound saltwater 5wt line. It's too light for this rod, but the rio gold 6wt line was a perfect match and full flex double hauls were again.... impressive. The rio gold is also a great dry fly line. I tested it out on the yakima a couple weeks ago and was hitting drifts with the same accuracy as my 9ft 5wt zaxis. Not bad for a long stick.

All in all, this rod takes some tinkering to find the sweet spot in terms of lines. If you have a little patience to dial it in, you'll be rewarded with an amazingly versatile tool.

I think the only downside to the rod is that it's black. It shows the scuffs pretty quick. But, if you're not an anal retentive a-hole like me, you won't give a damn.

350 gr. Wulff ambush for sustained anchor and overhead casting. This rod is so very nice, but wtf is Sage doing giving their top of the line rod a rubber winding check??? My z axis is classy... The rubber makes it look cheap. It don't cast cheap, but I don't think $0.50 extra per rod for classy components is asking to much...

350 gr. Wulff ambush for sustained anchor and overhead casting. This rod is so very nice, but wtf is Sage doing giving their top of the line rod a rubber winding check??? My z axis is classy... The rubber makes it look cheap. It don't cast cheap, but I don't think $0.50 extra per rod for classy components is asking to much...